Mind The Gap

America’s British population has taken to the web to voice its displeasure at news that U.S. candy giant Hershey has successfully blocked our much loved U.K.-produced chocolate from being exported to the land of the free.

Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” Lodges at No. 1 in Britain

She kissed a girl and she liked it. She hopes her boyfriend doesn’t mind it. It felt both wrong and right and it doesn’t mean she’s in love tonight…

Apparently, the Brits have just as much of a taste for asinine, gay-baiting pop-porn as we do. Katy Perry‘s “I Kissed a Girl” has spent an inexplicable seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and the folks across the pond have caught the herpes as well: it’s No. 1 in the UK this week. With no real competition in sight, she could spend another six weeks at the top of UK charts. (Supposedly, Perry’s newfound British success has forced rival Lily Allen to push back the release date of her new album.)

Rihanna, who has become the most reliable hit-maker of this millennium, will likely unseat Ms. Perry in the States on Thursday with her new single, “Disturbia.” The track is also getting a lot of spins on British radio this week: it enters the UK top 10 at No. 9, up from No. 34.

The big news this week, however, is the top five debut of the new Verve single. “Love Is Noise” is the newly reunited band’s first top 10 hit in eleven years.

Zutons saxophonist Abi Harding says she still feels like “Valerie” is “their song,” even though Amy Winehouse‘s remake wipes the floor with the original: “[Frontman] Dave [McCabe] wrote it and it’s our song, but it has a life of its own now. People who know Amy Winehouse’s version don’t know that it’s ours. ‘Valerie’s just a little band of its own now. But I still see it as our tune and it helped to keep us up there.”(BBC)

Comedy fans in the UK missed out on the Bernie Mac experience.(Guardian)

Is literary brilliance tied to celibacy? Jane Austin, Henry James, and George Bernard Shaw are among the “top 10 literary virgins,” The Guardian‘s John Sutherland.

Liam Gallagher calls Radiohead and Coldplay fans “boring and ugly.” Takes one to know one in this case.(Guardian)

MIA hits back at critics who say she supports terrorism in her birth nation of Sri Lanka.(Guardian)

Kevin Wicks

Kevin Wicks founded BBCAmerica.com's Anglophenia blog back in 2005 and has been translating British culture for an American audience ever since. While not British himself - he was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri - he once received inordinate hospitality in London for sharing the name of a dead but beloved EastEnders character. His Anglophilia stems from a high school love of Morrissey, whom he calls his "gateway drug" into British culture.

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America’s British population has taken to the web to voice its displeasure at news that U.S. candy giant Hershey has successfully blocked our much loved U.K.-produced chocolate from being exported to the land of the free.